mit to his fate, and
proposed this fresh adventure to his friend Eabani, who, notwithstanding
his sad forebodings, consented to accompany him. They killed a tiger
on the way, but Eabani was mortally wounded in a struggle in which they
engaged in the neighbourhood of Nipur, and breathed his last after an
agony of twelve days' duration.

"Gilgames wept bitterly over his friend Eabani, grovelling on the bare
earth." The selfish fear of death struggled in his spirit with regret at
having lost so dear a companion, a tried friend in so many encounters.
"I do not wish to die like Eabani: sorrow has entered my heart, the fear
of death has taken possession of me, and I am overcome. But I will go
with rapid steps to the strong Shamashnapishtim, son of Ubaratutu,
to learn from him how to become immortal." He leaves the plain of the
Euphrates, he plunges boldly into the desert, he loses himself for a
whole day amid frightful solitudes. "I reached at nightfall a ravine in
the mountain, I beheld lions and trembled, but I raised my face towards
the moon-god, and I prayed: my supplication ascended even to the father
of the gods, and he extended over me his protection." A vision from on
high revealed to him the road he was to take. With axe and dagger
in hand, he reached the entrance of a dark passage leading into the
mountain of Mashu,* "whose gate is guarded day and night by supernatural
beings."

* The land of Mashu is the land to the west of the
Euphrates, coterminous on one part with the northern regions
of the Red Sea, on the other with the Persian Gulf; the name
appears to be preserved in that of the classic Mesene, and
possibly in the land of Massa of the Hebrews.

[Illustration: 071.jpg THE SCORPION-MEN OF THE MOUNTAINS OF MASHU.]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from an Assyrian intaglio.

"The scorpion-men, of whom the stature extends upwards as far as the
supports of heaven, and of whom the breasts descend as low as Hades,
guard the door. The terror which they inspire strikes down like a
thunderbolt; their look kills, their splendour confounds and overturns
the mountains; they watch over the sun at his rising and setting.
Grilgames perceived them, and his features were distorted with fear and
horror; their savage appearance disturbed his mind. The scorpion-man
said to his wife: 'He who comes towards us, his body is marked by the
gods.'* The scorpion-woman replied to him: 'In his mind he is a god, i